Canberra - Blue Mountains
This morning was spent whizzing at high speed around Canberra. We initially drove round the corner and parked in the grounds of New Parliament House. It’s an impressive structure, but what is more impressive is the fact that the entire town layout has been designed around it. Coming from London, where the streets have evolved, this is quite a shock.
After having a wander around, we drove down past the Old Parliament House (an imposing but genteel building) to the National Gallery, where we had a quick look through the gardens.
We drove over the (man-made) lake, past the Australia War Memorial and up a very steep hill to Mount Ainslie, where it’s possible to get amazing views of Canberra’s tidy well-organised streets.
Having seen all that Canberra has to offer, we hurtled down the highway, only diverting ourselves to have lunch in Bowral. Bizarrely we were very close to Fitzroy Falls which we’d approached from the other direction about two weeks ago! It wasn’t until then that we realised how close to Sydney we were.
After a long and frankly tedious drive along rubbish roads we finally started to ascend into the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately sweeping vistas were non-existent; rather depressing concrete-based views were more prominent. We headed to the Three Sisters motel in Katoomba (a rather disappointing town) and went for a wander to see the Three Sisters, a famous rock formation. It was at this point that the amazing scenery of the mountains finally revealed itself; quite astonishing views over the ranges covered in dense eucalyptus forest, with magnificent cliffs jaggedly pointing upwards.
Dinner: takeaway Thai; most excellent. Enlivened by me popping out to try to find an beer shop which turned out to be virtually non-existent. You would have thought that the Aussies would have more places to purchase beer, but there you go…